Wike warns politicians against manufacturing grievances to win power
….Laments decline in presidential election turnout
By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA: Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Nyesom Wike, has warned politicians against manufacturing grievances to win power, saying the tactic can “become the weapon that divides the country tomorrow.”
Wike gave the warning on Thursday in a keynote address titled “People, Politics and Power Play in Nigeria: The Agitation for Equity and Fairness,” delivered at the first Idoma Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Abuja. The event was held in collaboration with Ochetoha K’Idoma as part of the Idoma Centenary Plus celebration.
“Leaders, in particular, must resist the temptation to manufacture or manipulate grievances for political advantage. The politics of identity can mobilise people quickly, but the instrument that mobilises supporters today can become the weapon that divides the country tomorrow.
“Nigeria cannot build a durable future if every political entrepreneur discovers that the easiest route to power is to persuade one group that another group is its enemy or oppressor.
“Our task, therefore, is not to eliminate political competition, but to civilise it; not to eliminate our differences, but to manage them justly.
“Nigeria belongs to all of us,” he said. “No Nigerian should need permission to feel at home in Nigeria. That is the deeper meaning of equity”, he said.
Wike also lamented the steady fall in voter turnout at presidential elections, citing figures from the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission has drawn attention to the continuing decline in voter participation: presidential-election turnout fell from 53.7 per cent in 2011 to 43.6 per cent in 2015, 34.7 per cent in 2019 and 26.7 per cent in 2023. These figures should concern every democrat,” the minister said.
He said citizens were being treated as an afterthought between elections. “Democracy cannot flourish when citizens are treated merely as voters to be mobilised when elections approach. Citizens must participate because government belongs to them. Political parties must therefore see citizens as partners in governance, not merely as instruments for winning elections”, he said.
He urged Nigerians to move from the politics of “whose turn?” to the politics of “what is right?”, describing this as “the enduring task.”
On how power is shared, Wike raised questions about zoning and rotation without taking a position on them. “When does zoning promote stability, and when might it constrain open political competition?
“When does federal character protect diversity, and when can its implementation create tensions with merit and competence?” he added, saying such questions “deserve neither simplistic answers nor partisan slogans.”
The minister said appointments by identity did not remove the duty to perform. “Representation should open the door, not remove the obligation to perform once one enters.
“A nation does not become just by appointing incompetent people merely because they come from an underrepresented group; neither does it become meritocratic by pretending that historical inequalities do not exist.”
Wike said a citizen’s sense of inclusion could not rest on appointments alone. “A young Nigerian without employment does not necessarily experience political inclusion because someone from his ethnic group has become a minister.”
He listed what he believed must be done to turn agitation into national renewal. “We must build political parties that practise genuine internal democracy; strengthen electoral institutions and protect the integrity of the ballot; make public appointments more transparent; enforce constitutional principles of inclusion; expand economic opportunity; improve the quality of education; and ensure that development reaches rural communities as well as metropolitan centres.”
The minister also challenged communities to apply the same standard to themselves that they demand of others.
Turning to the occasion, Wike described the Idoma Hall of Fame as “an institution for establishing standards,” saying it tells a community “what it considers worthy of remembrance, what it regards as worthy of emulation, and, ultimately, what it wants the next generation to become.”
He said the Idoma story “must never be told merely as a story of grievance, exclusion or what was denied,” but also “as a story of contribution.”
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